"The Strategy of the EU development "Europe 2020" is based on the principles of sustainable development 1. The questions of energy efficiency, effective use of resources, pollution prevention are among the priorities. Over the past 20 years the EU Council and the European Commission adopted more than 200 directives, decrees and regulations relating to environmental issues.

In the process of implementation of the strategy "Europe 2020" the EU institutions continue to develop and improve European law, combining environmental standards with voluntary instruments inherent in the model of circular economy 2, as a basis for the development of sustainable consumption and production.

Thus, in recent years, have been updated acts of law in the field of public procurement (the introduction of a model of sustainable (green) procurement), environmental monitoring, environmental certification and labeling of products and services, the impact assessment on the environment, support the introduction of energy saving technologies and clean technologies,, promotion of products with improved environmental characteristics.

According to the latest Eurobarometer study 3, 26% of European manufacturers offer eco-products and services, that is, those that have passed organic or environmental certification. And 77% of consumers are willing to pay more for eco-products, provided that they are sure that they are really environmentally safe, that is have the proper certification and labeling.

The global market for 'low carbon' and 'environmental' goods and services (which is a subset of the total market of green products) is estimated at €4.2 trillion with an EU share of 21%. This market has been growing at an annual rate averaging 4%, even during the economic recession, this contributing to make of the green economy one of the sectors with the strongest job growth potential. There is an increasing competition between companies to gain market share in this market. However, in relative terms green products still represent a marginal part of the EU consumer good market. Public procurement accounts for a large proportion of European consumption (nearly 20% of EU GDP). It can therefore play a key role in the circular economy, and the Commission will encourage this role through its actions on Green Public Procurement (GPP), where criteria are developed at EU level and then used by public authorities on a voluntary basis.

Christine Dorosko
EC General Directorate for Environmental Protection
(Brussels, Belgium)

"Practical tools inherent in a sustainable development model are the programs aimed at informing consumers about the benefits of sustainable consumption, sustainable (green) public procurement, sustainable construction, sustainable tourism, sustainable lifestyles and education, etc. In Germany, in February 2016, in order to implement these tools, was launched a national program on sustainable consumption. According to the program, sustainable consumption should grow from a niche market to a leading position. The principle of sustainable consumption is based on the consumption of products with improved environmental performance at all stages of their life cycle. This method involves the life cycle assessment of the possible impacts on the environment and human health, taking into account the raw materials and the safety performance of materials and products in conjunction with indicators of environmental pollution on the stages of production, transportation and disposal of waste. This approach provides a comprehensive assessment. One of the most important practical tools for sustainable consumption is ecolabelling. The German ecolabelling program is the oldest certification system in the world (38 years), which allows to evaluate the benefits of different goods and services according to their impact on the environment and human health. Currently, Germany has 120 environmental standards for product and service groups, which are used as criteria for the implementation of eco-certification and public procurement (technical specifications for criteria). These standards are voluntary, because they are developed on the basis of the best available technologies. The purpose of the voluntary environmental certification is to evaluate the benefits of products and provide the right use of the eco-label. In Germany the eco-labeling sign is called the «Blue Angel». This label is known for more than 90% of German consumers. Today environmentally certified are more than 13,000 kinds of products produced by 1050 member companies that mark their products with «Blue Angel» sign. The driving force behind the development of environmental certification and labeling in Germany is growing demand on eco-products and sustainable (green) public procurement 4 in the private sector."

Dr. Ulf Jaeckel
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety
Division `Sustainable Consumption, Environmental Product Policy´
(Berlin, Germany)

"Among the constraints that slow green modernization of the industrial sector, besides economic, there is insufficient understanding by the business community the benefits of green transformation, lack of professional information, lack of opportunities and lack of real incentive instruments for such changes, as well as inadequate legislative controls.

Realizing the need to drive the Ukrainian enterprises to green methods of economic activity, one of the strategic directions of the Strategy of the Ukrainian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) 2020 is the development of services aimed at promoting "green" resource-efficient, low-carbon modernization of our economy and industry. To perform the tasks assigned to UCCI, was created the Office for promoting green economy and modernization and the Entrepreneurs Committee on natural resources and environmental protection at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a think tank, source of information and consulting support for business environment that actively helps green modernization processes at all levels. The UCCI also cooperates with international organizations and programs. In particular, active cooperation is developing with the GEF / UNIDO "Implementation of energy management at Ukrainian enterprises", GIZ program (by the German government) "Promoting green modernization of the Ukrainian economy" and other programs."

Gennady Chyzhykov
the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

In the process of European integration of each country comes a time when the issue of foreign policy is transformed into a number of specific and complicated problems of internal policy.

For Ukraine, this moment has come and has since then the fore technical challenges have come, such as the implementation of hundreds of European regulations to comply with the rules by which the public sector, politics and economy in Ukraine operate.

Absolute priority is the modernization of the Ukrainian economy, overcoming the technological backwardness, the attraction of foreign investments and new technologies, creating new jobs, improving the competitiveness of domestic producers, access to global markets, especially the EU market.

The European choice of Ukraine opens up new prospects for cooperation with the developed countries of the continent, offers opportunities for economic development, strengthening Ukraine's position in the global system of international relations. This is the best way to realize national interests.

"Today there is a trend in the world, where successful business chooses a model of sustainable development, because this concept answers the manufacturers' question: how to do more and better with fewer expenses. This can be achieved by increasing net benefits from economic activity by saving energy and resources, reducing the degradation and pollution of the environment throughout their life cycle while improving quality of life.

On the other hand, tangible incentive is the growing desire of consumers to choose more high-quality and environmentally friendly products and services.

The Ukrainian consumers have learned to read carefully the packaging, and prefer products safer for health and the environment in many cases. These are the conclusions of an independent consumer survey, conducted in 2015 with the support of the UN Development Program in Ukraine. The national conformity mark is known to 15% of respondents, the European sign "Organic" - 12%, and the Ukrainian sign ecolabel "Green Crane" - 10%. In general, the survey results indicate low awareness of Ukrainian consumers about the importance of labels pointing at the safety and environmental benefits of products (from 10 to 15%) compared to, for example, with the German consumers (over 90%).

At the same time the Ukrainian poll results show a significant potential for our customers to choose exactly eco-products 5. 82% of respondents are willing to consciously choose products with improved environmental performance and are willing to pay more for them. 25% of the respondents are ready to buy such products regardless their price, 29% are ready to pay 10% more than the average price, 21% are ready to pay 20% more, and 7% - 30%. Only 18% of respondents are not willing to pay more for environmentally certified products.

This statistic indicates the need for a system to inform consumers about the values of labels in conjunction with the information on the safety and environmental benefits of the product, confirmed by the corresponding certificates.

Currently 68 domestic manufacturers have successfully certified their products and services according to ISO 14024, which voluntary use the eco-label "Green Crane". The leaders are the companies of food industry, construction industry, manufacturers of detergents and cosmetics.

Unfortunately, in Ukraine there is still a practice of unfair competition with use of DAM producers on the environmental benefits of products, sometimes disguised under the brand name.

The application of ecological and organic labeling is regulated in Ukraine by Technical Regulation on eco-labeling (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from 18.05.2011 # 529) and the Law of Ukraine "On the production and turnover of organic agricultural products and raw materials." These acts of law prohibit the use of its groundless application, that is, without the appropriate certification - ecological or organic.

The violators of these acts should be punished for misleading consumers and unfair competition to favor the producers who have invested in new technology to modernize production, purchased a safe and high-quality raw materials in order to achieve the requirements of voluntary standards, which will define the priority of such products.

This year, non-governmental organizations took the initiative to conduct public monitoring of the legality of the business entities of ecological and organic labels in the Ukrainian market. The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) was informed about these violations. Now under consideration by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine are more than 40 references. Work in this area continues.

AMCU has the authority to address the issue of unfair competition in advertising brands for companies that use false claims and mislead the consumer, as well as "pseudo" certification bodies, which do not have the appropriate accreditation and mislead the entrepreneurs over the competence of their services for the recognition of certificates. Unfair competition involves penalties of up to 30% of revenue for the last fiscal year preceding the year in which a fine was imposed in case of such a violation. "

Svetlana Berzina
Co-organizer GREEN MIND
Ukrainian NGO "Living Planet"

"Eco-labeling plays an important role in the replacement of outdated models of consumption by more rational - sustainable. The result of the efforts of the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN)6 is a consistent increase in market participants who change old habits and take responsibility, giving examples to others.

Our network brings together 27 multi-criteria environmental certification and labeling systems, which operate in accordance with ISO 14024. International standard principles and methods of evaluating these systems allow to identify the environmental characteristics and the overall benefits of production on its life cycle.

This type of certification is aimed at stimulating consumer demand for eco-products through its verification and identification (eco-labeling). This is very important because the need for reliable information on the environmental characteristics of products is growing worldwide. Consumers are increasingly focused on eco-labeling as a result of the certification, and have less trust in the authorities, advertising and DAM vendors.

The demand for eco-products encourages producers to switch to environmental standards, which in turn helps to reduce environmental pollution, prevent climate change and improve safety performance and product quality.

It should also be noted that the development of environmental certification and labeling affect sustainable (green) public procurement and the need to confirm the environmental performance of suppliers of raw materials, for example, in green building - for building materials suppliers.

The network members interact with each other, which involves:

• The development of support programs;
• Joint participation in the development / revision of baseline environmental standards for various categories of service or groups (for example, hotel, restaurant, trade services, etc.);
• Mutual international recognition of evaluation results between environmental certification and labeling bodies.

Despite the active development of the market eco-products and services in different countries, regions and globally, the Ukrainian business has good opportunities for entry into foreign markets, positioning itself as products with improved characteristics regarding the impact on the environment and human health at all stages of life cycle, which is confirmed by ISO 14024. This can be done through a system of mutual recognition of evaluation results of ecoproduction between national and regional certification systems, combined with the global network, which Ukraine entered in 2004 with the eco-label "Green Crane".

This means, for example, that the environmental certification and labeling system of the Nordic countries "Nordic Swan", which I represent, eco-label in Germany «Blue Angel», European «Ecolabel EU», ecolabel in America "Green Sea" and Canada, China, Australia, as well as the Ukrainian "Green Crane" and other GEN members mutually recognize the results of the evaluation."

Bjorn-Erik Lonn
Chair Nordic Swan (Eco-labeling program of the Nordic countries)
(Oslo, Norway)